


The Villian Of Your Story

by Exiti_Anima



Series: Three Word Prompts [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, Civil War Team Iron Man, Critical of Steve Rogers, Dark Tony Stark, Gen, He Makes Them Pay, Only To The Ex-Avengers, Team Tony Stark, Tony Stark is not Amused, Tony is done, Tony-centric, civil war happened, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-02 04:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exiti_Anima/pseuds/Exiti_Anima
Summary: Tony has heard left and right that he was a monster, he was a villian to the world. He can’t make up for his mistakes or his past, he just has to grovel at the Avengers feet in hopes of pleasing them. Civil War happens, and it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.They wanted him to be the villain of their story?Fine, he’ll ruin their whole life.





	The Villian Of Your Story

**Author's Note:**

> So I’m going to start doing a three-word prompt and this is the first story of what will be a series. They won’t be connected unless if I explicitly say they are, and they’ll all be Marvel centric. I’m doing this to keep my mind running and motivated, and for those of you keeping up with the series ‘If I Could Reverse Back Time’ that’ll be up soon.

Tony thought Steve saw the world through rose-tinted glasses, so naive and yet so willing to take on anyone who opposes him.

See, when Tony was younger he admired that kind of thinking. Putting others before yourself. 

Now he realizes it wasn’t Steve putting other before himself, it was Steve putting his beliefs in front of others and the others were just lucky enough that they fit in with his agenda.

Steve spoke of _Tony_ having ulterior motives? Please, like he was the only guilty one here.

Steve made one mistake though, and it would cost him everything he was fighting for.

_He made Anthony Stark his enemy._

* * *

 When Tony was finally released from the hospital, he put everything into making sure his Rhodey would be able to walk again. Nothing else mattered, and it was only after he completed the braces that he finally allowed himself basic human necessities.

Well, that’s how Rhodey worded it. Tony preferred to think he was just letting his body rest, and that he wasn’t depriving his body of anything.

It was only after he fell asleep and woke up from a nightmare of everything that went shit for him over the past few years, nightmares of accusations being thrown at him and all the fights he got into that ended with a shield being brought down on his head, that he realized one thing.

_The Avengers didn’t deserve him._

Well, more like the fugitives seeing as that was what they were, but the sentiment still stood. He let those assholes walk over him for _years_ and for what? For Steve to belittle him at every step he made, for Wanda to give him headache inducing nightmares because of her magic? For Natasha to scoff at every word that comes out of his mouth, for Clint throw snarky comments when he expresses his opinion? For Sam to turn the blind eye when all of this was happening, and siding with Steve for no reason? For Scott, a man he didn’t even know, to talk about how he’s _‘not connected to his conscious’_ or some bullshit like that?

They wanted Tony to be the bad guy ever since the beginning, and you know what?

 _Tony was going to give it to them._

They wanted him to be the person who maliciously killed Wanda’s parents with no remorse and purposely made Ultron to destroy the world? Fine. They wanted him to be the worst of humanity, not worth more than one person ten times over? He’ll play the part. They wanted him to be volatile, textbook definition of narcissism, and not recommended because of it?

He could be all that and more.

They wanted him to be the bad guy? The villain in their story?

 _They’ll regret that decision soon enough._

* * *

It started out slow, Tony would be the villain of _their_ story but not anybody else’s. That meant Tony had to help Rhodes back up again, which wasn’t a problem because he loved his Honeybear, and he had to provide some upgrades for SI since stock fell from the drama going around Tony, but after that there was nothing to deter Tony from moving forward with his plans. 

What spurred him on even further was the poor excuse of an apology followed by a flip phone. A damn _flip phone._ Tony could call whenever he needed them, said the letter, and Tony sneered at it. He didn’t _need_ any of them, nor did he _want_ them.

Steve would just have to learn to deal with the fact that Tony wasn’t a damsel in distress, and could do perfectly fine without any of them.

Tony put on a good show, continuing to work on the Accords despite his ‘backstabbing teammates abandoning him’ (he was quite amused when he saw that in the newspapers) and the press ate it up. The public was fickle at best most of the time, but here they seems very firm on their decision that Steve was a wolf in sheep’s clothing and that made Tony’s mission all the more easier. There was a few that criticized him, but they were nothing compared to the uproar against Steven Rogers and his ragtag team of the other Avengers.

He had the Accords down pack, as the representative of both America and the Avengers he was there for all meetings so nothing was happening that he didn’t know about, and Tony even managed to land Ross in jail. When that happened, he waved his hand mockingly and basked in his success for a moment before getting to work again.

Everything was going as planned, the public was on his side and he had everyone wrapped around his finger.

Oh, he also decided to release the video of what happened in the bunker to the public. 

Tony knew it was there, in the Hydra base, and he knew he also had a copy of it in his armor. That decision he had thought about for awhile before deciding that it would ultimately benefit him. He didn’t want a wrench thrown into his plans if some scum Hydra agent decided to put the video online before he had a chance to address it and, like he predicted, it worked in his favor when he did it.

After seeing the clip, and from his point of view in the armor too, the public was practically foaming at their mouth to get their hands on the fugitives. Particularly Steve. Some were still angry at him, as always, and their claim was that he shouldn’t of had attack them because the death was years ago and he should’ve gotten over it by now.

Tony made sure to address that in his public speech after the video was released. 

“I lost my parents early on, before I was even able to take on Stark Industries.” Tony adjusted his cuffs, allowing the press to catch a hint of vulnerability _(even if it was false vulnerability, they didn’t need to know that it was for the cameras)_ before clearing his throat and continuing. “Prior to the conflict with Mr. Rogers, I had given a Binary Augmented Retro Framing presentation and the memory I decided to showcase was one of my parents. The night they were leaving to drive to their deaths. In this presentation, I showcased how I wished that night had gone but it couldn’t of had been farther from the truth. We argued that night, and we all separated angry without words of ‘I love you’ parting from our mouths. When I found out that they died that following morning, I was struck with grief because the last thing I said to my father were words of hatred and anger. I didn’t wait around for my mother that night, I had stormed away before she could try to mend the situation at hand. Now that happened years ago, but when I had the conflict with Mr. Rogers I had just relived that moment full of regret and remorse.”

Tony paused, letting the press soak it up and snap their pictures, and took the time to survey the room. All eyes were on him, and he internally smirked at the thought of Rogers watching this right now and not even knowing this was the beginning of the end. 

“I went to Siberia with the intentions of helping Mr. Rogers and Mr. Barnes, despite all our differences and mistakes. I went to Siberia, leaving behind my _injured_ friend who has come to be my _oldest_ friend, because I thought we could sort it out. One final attempt to make things right. We entered a chamber in the bunker, and we were torn apart from the inside.” An echo of Zemo’s words, not that the public would know since the public release of the video only started playing when the video of his parents did. No, this was directed straight at the camera, and straight at Steve. “We were shown a clip of my parents being murdered, as you all know, and I turn to my ally, my _friend_ , and I expect to see shock. I don’t. Instead I see a face of someone who _knew_ and kept it a secret. The worst part was asking this person who I had fought side by side with in battles if he knew and having him _lie_ straight to my _face.”_

“Do you really think they deserved what you did to them?” A reporter shouted, and Tony knew the question was coming.

“I don’t think none of us acted rationally in that situation, and I’m especially sorry for lashing out against Mr. Barnes who was just a puppet in Hydra’s hands. But, I showed considerable restraint for someone who just _saw their parents die.”_ Tony let his voice ice over at that part, and when the reporter cowed at it Tony let his voice go back to normal. “We all know the capabilities of the Iron-Man armor, we’ve seen me use it in battle plenty of times, and never once do you see me use that power against the two super soldiers. I was hurt, I was angry, but I was not after blood. I did _not_ want to kill them.” Tony repeated in a firm tone, and the reporters nodded along as if he was the teacher and they were the students in a school. 

_Like little sheep._

“From the video, it looked as though neither Mr. Rogers or Mr. Barnes were showing that kind of restraint. Do you find this to be true also?” Another reporter in the back asked, and Tony looked to the camera that was feeding this to televisions live and hoped Steve could see him as he answered.

“Yes, I do. We’ve also seen Mr. Rogers in battle and I think it’s a fair assumption to think he was fighting like he had nothing to lose. He did not show restraint, and in the heat of the moment it looked as though he was contemplating on killing me before thinking better of it. Thank you for your time, no further questions.” Tony walked off stage, ignoring the chatter of the reporters, and with his back turned to the cameras he let a vicious grin spread over his face.

 _The dominos were falling into place._

* * *

The press conference, along with the video, was the news for many weeks. Aside from a few fanatics, nobody was siding with Steve and the others anymore and that’s just what Tony wanted. 

“Hey kid.” Tony ruffled Peter’s hair as he walked into the kitchen, ignoring his squawk of resistance, and poured himself some coffee.

“Got any plans today Mr. Stark?”

“Tony, please, and I’ll have to see, why? Is anything bothering you?” Tony asked as he sipped his coffee, and Peter wrung his sweater nervously. Tony was just getting Peter used to asking him for things and for his time, so when Peter wanted to do something Tony was always careful to not turn him down.

“Well there’s a new movie coming out, and I was wondering if you wanted to see it? And then after we can go down to the lab and I can show you new web schematics?” Tony knew he was like a father figure to Peter, he’d have to be stupid to not see the signs, and he knew that Howard never made the time of day for him. Tony vowed a long time ago not to be anything like Howard, and he wasn’t going to break that vow now.

“Sure kid, let me get changed and then we’ll get going.”

He may be in the process of ruining the fugitives lives, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take time off for his family.

* * *

The silence was deafening.

“You want to bring Captain America and Co. back to America?” Tony said slowly, as if talking to a particularly dumb child, and one of the US councilmen nodded. This absolute fucking _idiot_ wanted Tony to go up to _rulers of countries_ and say ‘oh hey America wants to bring back those fugitives to be apart of the Avengers again. We’ll give them a slap on the wrist don’t worry.’

“Yes, we think it’d be beneficial.”

“How.” Tony practically grounded out, crossing his arms, and the councilmen tried to explain.

“Well, Steven Rogers is Captain America and showing comradery may be the thing to help the citizens accept-“

“Comradery between who?”

“Between you and the rest of them.” Tony released a breath, and looked at the councilmen.

“As the representative of America, a choice you choose, may I give you my input?” At the councilmen’s nod, Tony continued, “I don’t think this is wise, and I’m saying this as a businessman and not as someone with bias.”

“Continue.”

“Sir, we have everyone we need to keep Earth safe. Would having Captain America on our side and working with us peacefully and efficiently be spectacular, especially since he’s practically wearing America’s flag on his back and therefore the blame gets place on America? Yes, but we can’t be so naive. I know you’re doing this because you’re concerned about America,” _and not because you’re a Steven Rogers fanboy,_ “and I know you may have had your doubts, which is why you came to me and not the other councilmen first.” _Definitely not because you knew they wouldn’t agree with you in the first place._ “But I can assure you America will do just fine without their mascot with them. If we presented this idea to the public, imagine how the press would react! Our careers would be over!” _Put pressure on him, he wants to keep his job._ “I’m with you no matter what, but in my opinion this is ill-advised. I don’t want the press breathing down your neck if something like this gets out, let me take care of America’s reputation and our little Captain America problem in one fell swoop I promise you things will turn out all right.” _Give him an out while letting him hand the keys to the kingdom over._

“You’re right Doctor Stark, I’m glad I contacted you. Make sure America doesn’t get any more blame than it already has.”

Tony lets a smirk creep on his face as the councilmen resigns to the fact there is no saving Captain America, at least this version of the patriotic symbol.

“Will do councilmen.”

The news comes out later, and it makes headlines of newspapers countries wide.

**_America’s Representative Anthony Stark announces that America officially retracts the title of Captain America from Steven Grant Rogers._ **

**_America disowns Captain America!_ **

**_Captain America is no longer the symbol of America, as American representative Tony Stark announces that America wants nothing to do with the Captain!_ **

**_Who will fill the shoes of the next Captain America? Does anybody want to after the judgement given to the title?_ **

* * *

The final part of Tony’s plan is the easiest. 

Did T’Challa think Tony would let him walk without any repercussions of housing the fugitives?

For a king, he was making all the wrong choices.

“Hello, if you could pass this message on to your king that’d be lovely. I don’t really need to speak with him, he just needs to hear this.” Tony announced cheerfully over the phone to one of the guards who looked him up and down in obvious scrutiny. Tony scoffed internally without letting his exterior facade change, if anything she should be scrutinizing her king for putting them in such a precarious situation. While still maintaining his cheerful mood, his voice dropped to ice, “If he doesn’t tell those little fugitives to pack their shit up and leave before tomorrow I’ll let the whole world know about what, or _who_ , Wakanda is hiding. Sound fair? Good! If T’Challa has any questions tell him to write his questions down and throw them in the waste bin because frankly, he doesn’t have time to be arguing with _me.”_

Tony hung up and waited as, predictably, the king called him. Still, Tony sighed in annoyance as he answered.

“Stark residence, what do I owe the unfortunate pleasure of talking to the king to?” Tony answered cheerfully, with the underlying tone of sharp wire, and his response came quick.

“Are you actually going to give up their location?” T’Challa cut straight to the point and Tony let his smile drop, annoyance and seriousness taking its place.

“Absolutely, I hold no grievance towards Wakandabut you’re housing international criminals and I’ve given you more than enough time to kick them out yourself. Seeing that you haven’t, I’ve taken matters into my own hands.”

“They are not causing trouble.”

“Oookay,” Tony drawled slowly, “I don’t know if you heard me but they are _international criminals._ I don’t give a damn that they’re not causing trouble now, they’ve crossed multiple countries and many want them _dead_. Handing them over to America is one of the easier choices you’d be making.”

“And if I don’t? Outside countries can’t get pass Wakanda borders, we are safe within our border.” Young and arrogant, really Tony was expecting more from the king. All of this was amusing to Tony, he didn’t really see Wakanda as a threat.

Just a nuisance.

“Yes that’s good and all except for two things. You are a new country opening up trade to other countries. Many don’t know their stance with your country meaning you don’t have many, if any, allies that will back you up if multiple countries decide to go after you. Not to mention, your newly opened international trades wouldn’t do so good if word got out about you housing fugitives within your border. Second, I have a pinpoint of _exactly_ where in Wakanda the fugitives are. I can have the Iron Legion and armies from multiple countries on you in seconds. You may be the most technologically advanced country, but with all that there’s no way you’ll be winning. Especially if one of those nuke crazy countries decides to push that red button and nobody wants that, right?” Tony flashed a shark-toothed grin, and T’Challa knew he was losing this. “So, like I said before, you get those fugitives out of your country or I’m releasing this information to the public and Accords Council.”

“They are your friends.” T’Challa mustered up, one final attempt at stopping Tony, and Tony laughs. It’s a scathing and mocking laugh, one that comes out of the mouth of a man who’s been betrayed too many times to care.

“They _were_ my friends. Now? They’ve got a VIP access to see what it’s like to be my enemies. Remember our deal T’Challa, and if you do you’ll see a prime example of why you don’t want to cross me.” Tony ended the call and leaned back in his chair, satisfied.

A few weeks later, the fugitives were caught on American borders.

* * *

Now, it was almost over. 

“Lets take these assholes to court!” Peter pumped his fist in the air excitedly, dressed in a suit as they drive to the courthouse.

“Peter! Language!” Tony scolded, and they looked at each other before laughing.

They were going to condemn the fugitives to a life in prison, and Tony was going to soak it all in.

It was over quick, the decision was reached pretty easily, and Tony was there to witness it all.

“We have come to an unanimous decision that Steven Rogers, Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Wanda Maximoff, and Scott Lang are guilty on all accounts.” The crowd cheered, and the Ex-Avengers looked baffled as if they couldn’t believe the public wasn’t on their side.

“W-What?! This is bullshit!”

“Barton! Behave yourself!” The judge hit the gavel and Clint sneered at the judge.

“It doesn’t matter! I’m screwed!”

“You sure are.” Tony smirked and Wanda glowered at him.

“You! You put them all against us! You probably paid those people to tell lies against us!” Wanda screeches, and Tony whistles as he rocks back on his heels.

“You’re calling the witnesses, victims of _your_ actions, _liars?_ Man, I feel sorry for you.” When Wanda starts to form red at her hands, Tony shakes his head, “Did you not just hear what the judge said? No magic, not like it matters anyway with the verdict the jury gave. Your magic is going to get taken away.”

“Not before I kill you.” Wanda growled as she threw her magic at Tony, only to be stopped by a golden glow.

“Just in time Strange.” Tony greeted, and the Sorcerer Supreme nodded towards him before turning to Wanda. 

“Ms. Maximoff, my name is Doctor Strange and otherwise known as Sorcerer Supreme. I am the jurisdiction of magic, meaning I keep track of magic users around the world and threats to Earth. Because of your use of your magic in the harming others, as Sorcerer Supreme I am taking your magic away from you.”

“Y-You can’t do that!”

“You’ll find that I can.” Tony watched on as Strange took Wanda’s magic from her, and watched with vicious satisfaction as she fell to her knees weeping when the process was done.

“Thank you for your time, your honor, I’ll be taking my leave now.” Strange nodded to the judge and then to Tony before disappearing.

“What the hell was that?! Wanda, are you okay?” Clint kneeled next to Wanda, who shook her head violently.

“No! He took it away!” Wanda tried to use her magic, looking to her hands for a spark of red, but when nothing appeared she broke down again.

“What-hey get away! Can’t you see she’s torn up about this!” Steve yelled as guards approached them, and when one tried to grab him he shoved them away harshly. Natasha went silently, like Tony predicted she would, and he blew her a kiss as she walked past, getting a glare in return.

“Mr. Rogers, don’t make them use unnecessary force!” Tony called gleefully and Steve shot him a glare before holding his wrists out reluctantly. The handcuffs were put on him, and Steve looked surprised when he actually had to make an effort to keep his hands up to his chest as the handcuffs weighed him down.

“What-?”

“Doctor Stark has produced handcuffs made for super humans so they can’t break out of the regular handcuffs.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Clint scoffed as the regular handcuffs were put on him and Wanda, the latter not needing anything special since her magic was taken away, “Of course it’d be Stark to make something like that shit.”

“Language Barton.” Tony said cheerfully and the person in question snarled at him, but remained silent.

“You’re going to hell Stark.” Clint said as he passed Tony, and the person in question smirked in return.

“I’ll see you there.”

* * *

“Oh don’t you look nice? Orange looks good on you! Met anybody that does voodoo so you can try your luck on me with a voodoo doll?” Tony remarked as he slid into a chair next to Wanda in an interrogation room, and she yanked her chains violently as she snarled at him. 

“Give me a piece of your hair and we can find out.” She said with a vicious smirk, and Tony smirked right back.

“Nah, I prefer not to feel like needles are being pushed into my back thank you very much.”

“Why are you here Merchant?” 

“Don’t worry, I’m visiting all of your friends so don’t feel special.” Tony shrugs and continues, “I just wanted to let you know that it didn’t have to happen this way.”

“What?” Wanda demanded and Tony leaned closer.

“You wanted me to be Ultron, a monster, and you wanted me to be the Merchant of Death. Do you know I didn’t tell the Avengers what you did to me? Clint thought I was lucky enough to escape your mind magic, I don’t know how, and none of them know it was because of you that Ultron was created.” Wanda crossed her arms and looked away, acting like the child they both knew she wasn’t.

“So what? You always had it in you to create something like that, I just helped you speed up the process.”

“I tried to be the nice guy, despite the fact you wanted me to be anything but. Now, I’m tired of playing nice with you guys. You wanted me to be the villain? Here it is, and that’s _exactly_ why you’re here.” Tony stood up and turned to leave, but Wanda had one more thing to say.

“You’re despicable. You don’t deserve to be called a hero!”

“And you do? You think _Sokovia_ deserved what you did to them? You think that little boy, and many others out there, deserved to _die_ because of what happened? Steve said that we were going to save everybody on Sokovia as it was racing towards the sky, but he forgot about the people down on Earth and the impact this would have on them. Next time you want to point fingers, think about how _your_ actions caused kids to be _orphans_ just like you and your brother. Think about how you’ve doomed those little kids to have to go through the same pain you did. Except instead of them pointing fingers at me, they’ll be blaming _you.”_ Tony left after that, leaving Wanda alone in her thoughts.

He visited the others, and got words of his ego or how he was the scum of humanity thrown at him but he honestly didn’t care what they thought. Who was the only one not behind bars out of all of them? Oh right, it was him.

One comment made him stop.

“Is Rhodes alright?” Wilson had asked, quietly then, after Tony had given him his own personalize speech like Wanda had gotten, and Tony internally rolled his eyes as he took in Wilson. He could’ve been a good man, smart and a capable fighter, but he fell for the Captain America speech Steve always gives out when convincing someone to join his side.

He should’ve stood as a counselor. 

“Colonel Rhodes is doing fine, the braces I made for his legs work efficiently and he’s back to walking again along with working the War Machine armor.” Tony said coldly, distant, and Wilson nodded.

“That’s good, uh, if you could can you say sorry for me? I never met for it to go down like that, I just want him to know that.” Tony stood up and nodded once before leaving, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Wilson sag with relief.

The only reason why he told Rhodey, later, was because he deserved closure and the truth, even if he told Tony it doesn’t bother him. He didn’t do it for Wilson, though, and he made sure to tell the man that before he left.

Steve was the last, and the one he’d get the most satisfaction from.

“Tony.” The man greeted, looking at him with a disapproving gaze even though he’s the one locked up.

“Mr. Rogers.” Tony greeted as he sat down, “I’m happy to inform you Mr. Barnes is getting the psychiatric care he needed and that B.A.R.F is helping getting the Winter Soldier program out of his head.”

“That’s good-“ Steve began, hopeful, and Tony cut him off.

“I was just letting you know because I want you realize this all could’ve been avoided. See, you’re locked up here and Barnes is getting all the treatment he needs but when he’s cleared he’ll become an honorary member of the Avengers.”

“You can’t do that-the Accords will try andcontrol him.” Steve said desperately, tugging at his superhuman resistant chains, and Tony gave him a wicked smile.

“That’s where you’re wrong, I can do that because he already signed an agreement. This didn’t have to happen this way y’know, if you had listened to me the first time around _none_ of this would’ve happened. But, it works out better for me anyway.”

“Why are you doing this?” Steve’s voice cracked and he looked so sad, but it was only because all this was happening to _him._

“Because I’m Tony Stark, and you should’ve realized that before you made me your enemy.” Tony gave Steve one more look, one of disdain and disgust, before turning around and slamming the door shut behind him.

Tony thought Steve saw the world through rose-tinted glasses, and he was glad to have had the honor of breaking them. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! I wanted to show what would happen if Tony was to really try and ruin the Ex-Avengers lives. Kudos and comments keep me motivated! Thank you for reading!


End file.
